One thing I learned mat-side at state: Boylan's Alex Butler the robo-wrestler has feelings

Monday

Feb 24, 2014 at 4:19 PM

The IHSA state wrestling tournament capped off its three-day event with the finals in Champaign on Saturday, and a close-up view of some of the finals that included our locals gave me a different perspective of who these guys really are.

Jay Taft Staff writer @jaytaft

There are some things that a reporter, videographer or photographer (or sometimes, for me, all three) may pick up while sitting, kneeling or standing right next to the action, that others farther away just might miss. Like a facial expression, or words tossed back and forth, sometimes even evidence of what really happened, those are the kind of things that are often caught only by those right in the thick of things when it comes to sports.

There were a couple of instances of this this past weekend in Champaign, when I covered the three-day IHSA state wrestling tournament. Eleven of the 14 state finals in Class 1A, as well as four others in 2A and 3A, had at least one local wrestler involved, and I was down on the floor for just about every one.

In one in particular, I saw (and heard) things others most definitely missed, just because I was about a dozen feet away. And even a couple of days later, I still feel bad for a guy I nicknamed “Robo-Wrestler,” Boylan’s Alex Butler.

The junior had a strong regular season, and was having an amazing postseason, all the way up to the state-final match in Class 2A for the 132-pounders. Butler, 40-3 and ranked No. 1 headed into the match, had laid down a 7-4 beatdown of Morris’ Kenny Baldridge the weekend before at sectionals, handing the senior his only loss of the season. It was a different story when the two met for the state championship on Saturday.

The match was a back-and-forth battle, and Butler’s escape with 19 seconds left knotted it up at 5-apiece, where it stayed at the end of regulation. In overtime, Butler (and myself) found out the hard way just how true it is when they say: “In wrestling, it just takes a split second to lose it all.”

Just 27 seconds into the OT period, Butler (and myself) heard a whistle as they were wrestling near the out-of-bound stripe, and everybody let up for a “split second” thinking it from one of their refs. It wasn’t, and Baldridge realized it before Butler did, which proved to be the difference.

Butler relaxed, and may have even started walking back to the center of the mat for a re-start, when Baldridge locked in a bear hug, lifted Butler up, and placed him on his back, all in one motion. A stunned-looking Butler just lay there as the ref pounced down as well, slapping the mat quickly to signify the ever-rare overtime pin.Even four minutes after the match, when I talked to him, Butler still had a dazed look in his eyes, and he led with: “I don’t know what happened.”

As I broke it down for him from my vantage point, it began to return.

“I didn’t think it was over. I thought we were out of bounds, and then the next thing I knew he was locked in,” Butler said as he fought back tears. “I knew, the whole match, that I couldn’t let him get locked in on me.

“Once he locked in on me, I knew I had lost control, and that was it."

While Butler is a junior, and still has another year to regroup, the guy I nicknamed “Robo-wrestler” most certainly proved he has real human emotions this weekend. After every match that I saw him wrestler this season, he stepped on to the mat with the most focused, most intense look in his eyes that an athlete can have.

His actions, his movements, even his post-match rituals, were all done methodically, and with a precision that comes only with years of practice. Win or lose (and he only lost four times all season), he would dart out to the closest hallway and begin running sprints – all in an effort to get him ready for one match.

And then in that one match, in one split second, he let it slip away. While he didn’t lose any respect from me – nor, I would imagine, from any of the competitors or those watching him at state – he did let the emotions flow after the finals’ loss, and it looked like it may be one of those defeats that could be hard to come back from.

But he’s the kind of competitor who will definitely use that loss – and that gut-wrenching finish – to motivate himself; to make himself better. Let me be the first one to say he’ll get his IHSA state-wrestling title. And it probably won’t come down to a split-second overtime move, either.

“I know now I’ve got more work to do. I’ll do it; I’ll start next week,” Butler added. “After this kind of finish, I kind of feel like I’ve got a lot more work to do.”